Much credit goes to Lovato, who’s a magnanimous and incredibly easy-to-like presence onstage.

The pink-haired Demi Lovato made many sincere proclamations of affection for her young, female fans, and spoke encouraging words of empowerment, proving herself a fine and relatable role model to her target audience.

I say “kids” because the Air Canada Centre was swarming with them on Wednesday night — thousands upon thousands of giddy teenage and “tweenage” girls, for the most part, many of them waving flashing, freshly purchased Demi Lovato glow wands and sporting neon colours in thematic accordance with the 21-year-old singer/actress’s current Neon Lights tour moniker.

Moms aplenty with daughters still young enough not to be embarrassed by their presence could be seen joining in the riotous fun in the stands, too, along with a smattering of good-sport dads and a bare handful of young lads who either qualify as brave or very, very smart indeed for allowing themselves to publicly partake of such a thoroughly girly spectacle. Overwhelmingly, though, this felt like an evening for the wee ladies to say to hell with the homework, go mildly wild on a school night and leave facing no greater repercussions than a drowsy first class or two the next morning and feeling rather good about themselves.

Credit for the latter goes to Lovato, who’s a magnanimous and incredibly easy-to-like presence onstage. She made endless, sincere proclamations of affection for her fans, drew a deafening roar of approval for declaring “I stand for women empowerment” and “young girls will take over the world” mid-set and made such a disarmingly honest speech about her past battles with bullying, substance abuse, self-harm, mental illness and an eating disorder by way of introduction to the blustery power ballad “Warrior” (sample lyric: “I’ve got scars / I’m a survivor”) that a certain curmudgeonly music critic was nearly moved to tears.

“I want you to know it’s okay to get help and not be ashamed of it,” she said. “And, parents, it’s okay to get help for your kids.”

As for the fans who have adopted Lovato as a model for triumphing over adverse situations and tell her things like “You saved my life,” Lovato responded, “I’m so grateful that I was able to inspire you, but you saved your own lives.”

Truer words were never spoken. And they carried a great deal more weight coming from a pink-haired chick rocking out in a leather jacket than they would have dropping from the lips of yet another pop-tart stick insect cavorting in next to nothing with a troupe of dancers. Lovato might be a graduate of the Disney Channel machine, but she’s got far more in common with a respectable resistor of the femme-pop mould like Kelly Clarkson than she does Britney Spears.

I want you to know it’s okay to get help and not be ashamed of it. And, parents, it’s okay to get help for your kids.

Demi Lovato

Maybe it’s just an act — she’s an actress, after all, one elevated to stardom seven years ago by Camp Rock and most recently seen on freakin’ Glee — but if it is, I’ve got no problem with it. Kids need to hear stuff like that from relatable role models. End of argument.

The music? It’s fine. Wednesday’s 90-minute set list boldly commenced with big hit “Heart Attack” and then whipped briskly by in a blur of shouty, defiant “I’m okay!” anthems (“Fire Starter,” “Got Dynamite”) and “I’m wounded, but I’m okay!” ballads (“Remember December,” “Nightingale”) too obviously drawn from prevailing, recent pop trends to leave much of a lasting dent — “Made in the U.S.A.” sounds like it was written by a machine programmed to fuse every Nickelback and Taylor Swift single together — but which were nonetheless entirely enjoyable during the three minutes or so they lasted. Everyone sang along to every word contentedly, in any case, so what do I know?

Admittedly, Lovato has amassed a few real winners over the course of her four albums. Latest record Demi’s “Really Don’t Care” is a capable mashup of Icona Pop-esque sass and Pat Benatar’s “Shadows of the Night,” for instance, while her version of the Oscar-winning Frozen soundtrack show tune “Let It Go” was a predictable smash with a crowd raised on Disney princesses.

New single “Neon Lights” was the hands-down climax of the night, however — partly because it’s an incredibly au courant EDM banger, but mostly because it allowed sage young concertgoers who’d come into the show with the Demi Lovato app on their smartphones an opportunity to interact with the performance in a tangible way.

When the message “It’s time to tap that app!” appeared on the big screens flanking the stage, several thousand cellphones were suddenly transformed into beacons of flowing, multicoloured, pastel light. Already pretty cool, right? But then, mid-song, their flashbulbs all started blinking in time to the thumping beat emanating from the PA and, I’ve gotta say, I felt a little left out. Maybe even a bit jealous. Then the confetti cannons discharged and I had to admit to myself that, yeah, I had no real complaints about the night.

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